Martin Luther University

Drones

Delivery drones will use 10 times more energy than vans around town

As aviation regulators around the world work with the likes of Amazon and DHL to clear a legal pathway for drone delivery services to begin, a new study shows that the high energy cost of drones could make them worse for the environment than vans.

A length of the rod material, made of the polymer PLGA – poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid)

Medical

Antibiotic rods designed to "stick it" to gum disease

Gum disease is a very common condition, and it's usually caused by bacteria. Although orally-administered antibiotics are typically used to treat severe cases, a new treatment could be much more effective – with fewer side effects.

German and Australian researchers have figured out how a bacteria called C. metallidurans can consume toxic metals and excrete tiny gold nuggets, like that shown here

Biology

How a hungry, hardy bacteria eats toxic metals and excretes gold nuggets

If the goose that laid the golden egg had a real-life counterpart, it would be C. metallidurans. This bacterium consumes toxic metals and excretes tiny gold nuggets, but how and why has never been fully understood. Now researchers have peered inside the microorganism and figured out that mechanism.

Some of the capsules, as compared to a disposable coffee cream packet

Good Thinking

Together at last – milk and sugar, in dissolvable capsules

Those little containers of coffee cream may not look significant on their own, but when you consider how many of them are discarded every day … it adds up to a lot of waste. That's why a PhD student created milk-and-sugar capsules that dissolve completely when placed in hot liquid.